On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 4:45 PM, Ray Van Dolson <rayvd at bludgeon.org> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 04:38:22PM +0100, Matt Keating wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I've found a bug/problem with my centos 5.5 server. Any users who have >> a password of 9 characters or more, only the first 9 characters are >> used by the OS... >> eg. i set my password to "123456789" and i try logon via ssh with >> password "123456789ofgjdfuh" - it lets me in. >> and if i set my password to "qwertasdfGHJB" and i enter >> "qwertasdfSDWQWSDS" - it lets me in... >> >> The 'passwd' command only recognises the first 9 characters too... >> >> Has anyone seen this before, or know how to fix it? I feel its a major >> security risk and would like it fixed ASAP. > > Sounds like you're using DES password hashes instead of the newer MD5 > style. > > If you take a peek at some of the password entries in your /etc/shadow > do they have a $1$ at the beginning? If not, you're probably using DES > which is limited to 8 characters. Sounds like you're on the money. I didn't install this server, so I didn't choose the security stuff. Passwords don't start with $.... > There are a few other places where password length, strength, etc can > be configured, however I don't recall them off the top of my head. > > This is almost certainly not sshd's fault. :) > > Ray Will update shortly....